Fruit tree help

[coops228]

Hiya,
Just new so please be gentle with me!!

I am looking for some advice. I bought a couple of Golden delicious trees from Aldi in Feb and on them it said that Elstar was a polinator so I bought a couple of them too. Now that they are planted and seem to be doing well I find that they may not be cross pollinate compatible. (if that is a phrase!)

Can someone advise if this is really the case and perhaps suggest a good apple (one for each) that I can buy to pollinate them as I do have plenty of space for more trees and I don't really want to uproot them now that they are in. I am in South Aberdeenshire but in a sheltered spot.

Feeling a bit daft that I believed the lables on the tress now that I look at them and they do appear to be practically the same for both trees.

Doh!!

Thanks very much in advance!

[RedThorn]

Morning and Welcome to the Vine.

Sorry, but I'm not much use to you, hopefully someone with more knowledge about Fruit Trees will Be along shortly ( When they all wake up that is )

[Two_Sheds]

suggest a good apple (one for each) that I can buy to pollinate them

have a look here : https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profil...tionGroups.pdf

[Migueli]

The Aldi label telleth the truth.

[gojiberry]

Didn't realise there were so many groups of apple. There was a thread I was reading a couple of days ago that suggested the rootstock can have a bearing on when a tree is likely to flower which tend to make a bit of a farce of choosing a tree from a certain group.So Coops if you have the room I would get a couple of trees of the same group and try to keep your trees on roughly the same size rootstock.

Ian

[FB.]

I can't speak for Elstar, but I can speak for my own Golden Delicious and state that it flowers mid season (group D). Most other apples will cross-pollinate with groups C and D.
Are you sure that Golden Delicious will ripen sufficently up North? It needs a long, hot summer to ripen properly; it's an American apple, used to high temperatures.
Even here in the warm South, it only barely becomes an eater. Further North, it is often only suitable as a cooker.

So long as apples are flowering at the same time (even if one opens it's flowers a couple of days before the other) then good cross-pollination should occur. Nearby apple trees may also pollinate yours.
I note that Elstar is reported to be group D, so it should be a suitable pollinator for Golden Delicious - except that I see one of it's parents was Golden Delicious, which could cause problems with self-incompatibility genes blocking satisfactory pollination. Parents and offspring are often (but not always) poor pollinators of each other. They often share the same susceptibility to disease and I would be wary that all four of your apples could succumb to the same disease at some point in the future.

If I had to choose a single apple as pollinator for Golden Delicious and Elstar, I would choose "Winston". It flowers with group D, it is self fertile, fairly disease resistant, and has no direct parent links with your existing apples; Winston's parents are Cox x Worcester Pearmain. The Worcester Pearmain parentage arguably gives it's blossom some tolerance to frost and it also inherits Worcester's tip-bearing of fruit, which can influence pruning requirements.

I find that MM106 rootstock -at least in my area- brings forward flowering by a couple of pollination groups compared to most apple rootstocks.

But, if I was you, I would not worry too much and see whether you get any fruits forming from the blossoms. You might not need a pollinator.

.

[snohare]

Just a thought, but are crab apples not universal pollinators ? (I'm at the same stage as Coops really, but I seem to remember reading this when looking into pollination categories.) If so, get a cheap crab apple tree, I think you can get them from the supermarkets, Morrisons had some recently (as well as fruit trees).

[coops228]

Wow, guys, thank you so much for your words, I will perhaps see if I can find a "winston" as FB suggests and then see what happens.
I am in a fairly warm (for this neck of the woods!!) part of the North East and I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens with the trees. They are in a very sunny spot with some wind shelter so I am hopeful that they will at least have a fighting chance. Fruit would be a bonus!
Always loved the idea of an apple tree, we have a plum tree but I can't keep up with the fruit from it and my friends are usually sick of them by the time the summer is over so it would be nice to have the same problem with apples.
I live in hope.
Once again, thanks!